Europeanization, policy arenas, and creative opportunism: the politics of welfare state reforms in Italy

This article analyses the dynamics of the pension reform process in Italy in the early 1990s. I briefly review the key factors that opened the way to path-departure in the Italian welfare state. A revised version of the 'policy change' model, based on the concept of policy Windows, helps to explain why reforms were introduced at the beginning of the 1990s and not before. Such a theoretical perspective is useful to depict how the 'Europeanization, process affected Italy, the impact of which is assessed through a 'bottom-up' perspective. A number of national and European factors mutually interacted to produce a large window for innovative changes. Socio-economic conditions, the EMU process, the demise of the First Republic, and the resurgence of concertation were key elements favouring reforms. The ability of technocratic caretakers to build consensus within the corporatist (more than the electoral) arena was decisive.